Juncus leiospermus

Red bluff dwarf rush

Family: Juncaceae · Type: annual · Native

Red bluff dwarf rush is a California native annual found in low-elevation grasslands and open areas, typically growing between 30 to 100 meters elevation. Flowering from spring to early summer, this delicate rush produces tiny pale to reddish-brown flowers in small clusters of one to seven individual blooms. Growing as a densely clustered plant reaching 2 to 12 centimeters tall with stems wider than 0.4 millimeters, it forms compact tufts in its native habitat. Its basal leaves are short, extending less than three-quarters the height of the plant, with no leaf sheath appendages. The tiny spherical to oblong fruits are generally larger than the perianth and feature three to five internal chambers, with seeds measuring just 0.3 to 0.4 millimeters long.

California counties: Tehama, Butte, Shasta

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.